Cheap flights: Use this trick to HALVE the cost of long-haul flights

International travel can be prohibitively expensive, especially if you want to fly a direct route with a well-known airline.

But Jack Sheldon from Jack’s Flight Club has unveiled a trick that can save you hundreds of pounds per ticket.

It involves flying from a city close to your chosen airport, and then getting a low-cost flight on a budget airline for the remainder of the journey.

It might mean you are travelling for slightly longer, but the large savings are more than worth it, according to the travel expert.

This tactic works particularly well with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, he said.

“It can be incredibly expensive to fly on some direct routes from the UK to cities like Cape Town or Tokyo,” Sheldon told The Sun. “British Airways flights from London to Cape Town, for example, cost between £844 and £1,011 direct.

“But you can halve these costs with a ‘hidden’ city ticket.

“This involves searching for the same flight on the same airline from another ‘hidden’ city nearby in Europe such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Stockholm.”

He said Google Flights was the best place to try this.

“By flying from Amsterdam instead of London you can get a ticket to Cape Town in December on British Airways, for just £438 return – almost a 50 percent saving,” he observed.

Cheap flights: This simple tactic could save you hundreds of pounds on long-haul flights

“You can halve costs with a hidden city ticket”

“Even better is that the Amsterdam flight stops off in London, so on the way back, you can collect your checked baggage and skip the flight back to Amsterdam,” Sheldon continued.

“All you need to do then is book a cheap Ryanair or easyJet flight over to Amsterdam to start your trip off – and these fares can be very low, as we all know.”

The ‘professional flight hacker’ cited another example on return flights to Tokyo in November.

A non-stop flight from Heathrow to Tokyo on British Airways costs £820 return, he noted, but by starting the journey in Amsterdam instead, you will pay just £520.

As with the previous trip, the aircraft flies via Heathrow, so you can hop off there and collect your bags without having to return to Amsterdam.

Cheap flights: Departing from Amsterdam instead of London could save you up to 50 percent

Jack warned that these deals don’t last long. “These fares change often and these are the ones I found today, but in a few days these might be gone.

“The next ones could be to Cancun, Rio de Janeiro or somewhere else. It’s impossible to predict where, but very worth checking as the savings could be huge.”

The travel expert recently revealed the best ways to get a bargain package holiday. He advised being flexible as to your departure airport, and warned not to be fooled by airline ‘sales’.

He also recommended the best time to look for last minute deals.

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